Missouri...Southern or Midwestern? (Kansas City, St. Louis: high school, military, shop)

[lalainps]

Originally Posted by ajf131

I agree 100% about having to go to the Bootheel or places near it (like Sikeston, MO) to find true Southern towns in Missouri.

I think I know how to answer the endless debate on Southern V. Northern Accents in Missoureeeee..!
How do ya'll pronounce salmon?

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by lalainps

I think I know how to answer the endless debate on Southern V. Northern Accents in Missoureeeee..!
How do ya'll pronounce salmon?

I pronounce it like "samun." I would think that fire would be another way to distinguish it..."fah-re" is how Southerners pronounce it. the dialect boundaries pretty much limit the Southern dialect to the Southern quarter of Southern Missouri. I normally don't hear any Southern accents in St. Louis. I don't even really hear many Southern in accents in most of Missouri in general. Only people I've heard in Missouri in which everyone had a thick Southern accent was Southeast Missouri. I pretty much know a Southern accent when I hear one having family from Louisiana. Most everybody in Louisiana and Arkansas and Kentucky that I've heard of does not consider Missouri Southern. Just speaking from experience.

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by lalainps

DaisyMae - I hate to differ with you but half my family has been in "The Bootheel" since the early 1800's and the other half were there waiting for them. We pronounce it Missoureeeeeeeee.

I agree...I actually don't hear "Missouruh" as often as I do Missouri....it's kind of random which is pronounced what...and the term does not have anything to do with the South actually..."Missouruh" was actually how the original French settlers pronounced it That in fact is where it originated I have never heard people from outside Missouri in any region pronounce Missouri as "Missourah." It's "Missourah" from various state residents, Missouri to the rest of the state residents and the rest of the country.

[Northwoods Voyager]

Ifn y'all wanna hear a beautiful Southern accent, ya must take a trek to Georgia. Talked with a Georgia State Policeman once a few years ago (about the time when those pictures were taken) I won't say why I was having this dialog with this fine gentleman. Nothing nefarious, believe me

Anyway...his voice was sooo enchanting, sooo smooth, like warm honey, that had we carried on a conversation much longer, I think that I would have forsaken all my ties to family and friends and...well, let's not go there. His accent was charming. Not a bit similar to the accents in So.East Missouri.

[missymomof3]

The accents in the South are different depending on where they are, they aren't uniform.

[Northwoods Voyager]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

The accents in the South are different depending on where they are, they aren't uniform.

Oh, I just cannot let that one go by...He was uniformed tho'

You are correct. I have only been in a few of the Southern most states and in general find the speech to be so different from here in Mid Mo. but I like it.

First time I was in a restaurant in Alabama, the waitress asked me if I wanted...'Swat tae". I love it And I do love Sweet Tea now. Of course I have a wonderful daughter-in-law that makes Swat tae when she comes to visit us.

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

The accents in the South are different depending on where they are, they aren't uniform.

That is true, each state has its own accent, but in the long run there are general pronunciations and slurs that are uniformly shared by the entire South. It is true there are noticeable variations in accents from any region, but all have enough in common to be grouped together in their respective regions. Texas, Arkansas, Eastern Oklahoma, Southeast Missouri, most of Kentucky, Tennessee, parts of West Virginia, most of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, while they may not talk exactly the same in each of their respective speech patterns, share enough common traits to be linked together definitively as one region. The same thing applies to New York, Boston, and New England. I can tell by the way somebody talks if they are from some place in that region...where exactly i'm not sure but it's enough to pinpoint the area...and again, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Southern Canada all have enough common speech patterns that you would know somebody is from that region. Generally, if I hear somebody here with a Southern accent, my first thought is that they must be from out of state or from Southeastern Missouri...again, this is just me, i'm sure there are those who think differently, and i respect that. Accents and speech patterns are interesting stuff and their boundaries are by no means exact anywhere. I agree about accents being charming as well....it's easier for me to have a long, interesting, and entertaining conversation with somebody with an accent different from mine...I don't know why that is...it just IS....I like accents

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by Northwoods Voyager

Oh, I just cannot let that one go by...He was uniformed tho'

You are correct. I have only been in a few of the Southern most states and in general find the speech to be so different from here in Mid Mo. but I like it.

First time I was in a restaurant in Alabama, the waitress asked me if I wanted...'Swat tae". I love it And I do love Sweet Tea now. Of course I have a wonderful daughter-in-law that makes Swat tae when she comes to visit us.

If you want to know how to make sweet tea Northwoods, I actually have known how to do it for some time now...I just haven't done in it in awhile because I'm trying to lose some weight. The number one rule is that you have to heat the water up with the sugar already in it...it makes for a much more homogenous mixture then adding the sweetener afterwards. you need to fill a pitcher (example Mr. Coffee) 3/4 to the top with ice, 1/2 with water, put in six tablespoons of sugar, six teabags (if you're doing Lipton), and simply attach to an iced-tea maker and heat it. you'd need a maker for iced tea like those plugged-in coffee-makers..or...if you don't want to make it...McDonald's just recently began selling sweet tea in the Midwest and Northeast...Pennsylvania also has it now. so you can buy it from there. St. Louis has only had sweet tea for at McDonald's maybe a month at the most....good thing at least one restaurant besides Cracker Barrel decided to bring sweet tea to a region. Other than that, sweet tea is still very hard to come by in these parts.

[Northwoods Voyager]

Originally Posted by ajf131

If you want to know how to make sweet tea Northwoods, I actually have known how to do it for some time now...I just haven't done in it in awhile because I'm trying to lose some weight. The number one rule is that you have to heat the water up with the sugar already in it...it makes for a much more homogenous mixture then adding the sweetener afterwards. you need to fill a pitcher (example Mr. Coffee) 3/4 to the top with ice, 1/2 with water, put in six tablespoons of sugar, six teabags (if you're doing Lipton), and simply attach to an iced-tea maker and heat it. you'd need a maker for iced tea like those plugged-in coffee-makers..or...if you don't want to make it...McDonald's just recently began selling sweet tea in the Midwest and Northeast...Pennsylvania also has it now. so you can buy it from there. St. Louis has only had sweet tea for at McDonald's maybe a month at the most....good thing at least one restaurant besides Cracker Barrel decided to bring sweet tea to a region. Other than that, sweet tea is still very hard to come by in these parts.

Thank you for the recipe. I will try this soon. As I said my son's wife makes the best. I usually don't even watch how she makes it. I just enjoy it. Do no make it, because my hubby does not like his tea sweetened. Again thanks.

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by Northwoods Voyager

Thank you for the recipe. I will try this soon. As I said my son's wife makes the best. I usually don't even watch how she makes it. I just enjoy it. Do no make it, because my hubby does not like his tea sweetened. Again thanks.

It could be a quarter-full of water...I'd try a quarter just to be on the safe side...lol I flooded the pitcher the first time I made it and it wasn't pretty..lol. I'll have to ask my father to remind me. Don't try my suggestion Northwoods until I'm 100% positive I'm telling you the correct amount of water to add...lol...i should have my answer shortly. In the meantime, you can just go by Mickey D's and grab as much sweet tea as you like...it's the real stuff...you can get it large for only over $1.00. I wish they would bring Lambert's cafe up from extreme Southern Missouri to be throughout the whole state...I really don't like having to drive 200 miles south on I-55 to Sikeston to eat at one, or, even worse, 250-260 southwest on I-44 to Springfield....I love Lambert's cafe....sweet tea without fried chicken or barbecue is like a hamburger without fries